Dancing to make wishes come true

Make-A-Wish Foundation event features local celebrities in dance competition

Jessica Waters

12:00 AM, Oct 11, 2006

Greg Kurth, left, owner of the Rhythm In Motion dance academy, and professional dance instructor Kristy Castrogiovanni, right, demonstrate a few of the steps done by competitors in the Wishmaker's Ball dance competition. Rhythm in Motion is hosting the black-tie charity benefit in conjunction with the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Special to the Banner

A trip to Disney World is the most popular wish requested from the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida.

Special to the Banner

Make-A-Wish Foundation of Southern Florida's Wishmaker's Ball will be held Oct. 21, featuring a competition similar to "Dancing with the Stars. " Ballroom and Latin dancing have seen a resurgence, due in large part to television reality shows like "So You Think You Can Dance" and "Dancing with the Stars."

Special to the Banner

"Star light, star brightfirst star I see tonightI wish I may, I wish I mighthave the wish I wish tonight."

Every child knows the rhyme by heart, and almost every child knows at least a handful of other tricks to make his or her wishes come true: birthday candles, wishing wells and wishbones, to name a few.

For 70 children in Southwest Florida, however, wishing has meant a bit more than hoping the cute boy who sits in front of her at school will smile at her or that a pesky big brother will turn into a newt. Yet thanks to the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, making those dreams come true was even easier than tossing a penny in the fountain — all they had to do was ask.

It wasn't quite as simple as it seems, however. Each of the dreamers earned their dreams with months — and sometimes years — of medications, doctor visits, operations and uncertain futures.

"We grant wishes to children who have life-threatening medical conditions," said Sally Maitland, fundraiser and media relations manager at the Bonita Springs office of the Southern Florida chapter of Make-A-Wish. "By granting their wishes, we provide them with hope, strength and mostly joy. It's a wonderful way of giving these kids and their families a break from all the horrible things they have to deal with on a day-to-day basis."

Saturday, Oct. 21, Make-A-Wish will be holding the first annual Wishmaker's Ball at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point Resort and Spa. The sold-out black-tie gala will feature live music, a five-course dinner, dancing and both a silent and live auction. The biggest draw for the event, and the reason the event sold out more than two weeks in advance, is the "Dancing With The Stars" competition, said Maitland.

Hosted by Rhythm In Motion Dance Academy of Cape Coral, the event will partner local celebrities with professional dancers and pit them against each other in the style of the popular "Dancing with the Stars" television hit. Reading like a local Who's Who, the list of celebrities includes WINK anchor Stacey Adams, NBC-2 anchor Kellie Burns, ABC-7 anchor Len Jennings, Stephanie Davis and David Plazas of The News-Press, Fox 4 feature reporter "Wild" Bill Wood and Lee County Election Supervisor Sharon Harrington.

Despite the familiarity of those high-profile names, perhaps the most important celebrity dancer at the ball will be Sam Ardito.

Sam, who just turned 17 last Friday, has spent the last three months learning ballroom dancing. Although the learning process may have been a challenge, it has been a much more fun challenge than all the others he has faced in his young life.

From the age of 19 months, Sam has struggled against a medical condition that turned his body against itself. Sam's bone marrow produced an excess of detrimental cells, which in turn attacked his body and led to years of constant high fevers, swollen internal organs and a steady stream of doctors, medications and tests.

Six months before his ninth birthday, Sam was facing a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy as the disease ravaging his body grew stronger. It was at this bleak time that the Make-A-Wish foundation stepped into the picture, remembers his mother, Kathy.

Eight months pregnant with her third child and scrambling to take of Sam's younger brother Joshua as well as the heavy demands of caring for a sick child, Kathy and her husband Tom cautiously invited the director of the foundation to their home to find out what dream Sam wanted to have granted.

"No one could have been more surprised than my husband and I when his wish was to go to Parris Island," said Kathy. "He wanted to go see where his father had been a Marine and a drill instructor."

Sam had been born while Tom was in the Marine Corps, and Kathy said the family had always talked about taking a trip to see where she and Tom had started their life together. The advance of Sam's medical problems had that trip on the back burner though, she remembers.

Once the wish was made, Make-A-Wish swung into action and the Marine Corps stepped up, rolling out the red carpet at the Marine Camp in South Carolina, making Sam an honorary Marine. The wish brought him a week of no doctors, no nurses, no medications or hospitals, just a week of fun and entertainment, said Kathy, and it gave the family time to be together.

"We had been living day to day, and this gave us the chance to be together as a family," she said. "That week was the glue that made us able to get through the days ahead."

Sam's subsequent bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy were ineffective again the rebel cells ravaging his body. Seven weeks in isolation was followed by a broken back that required a back brace for eight months, and Sam's health was going downhill when Sam decided he wanted to walk away from the medical treatments.

"He believed, and we believed in our hearts, that his meds were destroying him, so we agreed," said Kathy. "We decided to stop the medication and keep praying, and we did that an never looked back," she said.

Today, Sam maintains his health, is active in his school and as a volunteer with the Make-A-Wish foundation and is looking forward to the future. Kathy credits the positive emotional and mental effects of the trip to Parris Island, and the efforts of the foundation, with much of the strength it took both Sam and the rest of the family to get through the intervening years.

"The power of a wish can be so healing, and a source of strength for the entire family involved," said Maitland. "It gives them something to look forward to, something to help them get over all the hurdles and to keep going."

Sitting in the audience the night of the Wishmaker's ball, watching Sam Ardito trip the light fantastic across the dance floor, will be a local boy who knows all too well about hurdles and challenges. Kenny Conidaris, a 12-year-old from San Carlos Park who is currently undergoing treatment for a rare and life-threatening disease called severe aplastic anemia, will be the wish-recipient at the ball, and will soon be headed out on a cruise to Hawaii with his family, courtesy of the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

There are wishes for everything from trips to Disneyland to shopping trips to meeting someone famous, said Maitland. She has seen a wide range of wishes in her six years with the program, including a boy who wanted a mechanical bull, a boy who wanted to meet the Pope, and a young girl who wanted to meet Orlando Bloom.

"Every eligible child referred to us has their wish granted," said Maitland. "We're not worried about the money. We know we will raise the funds. We just want to make sure to get the word out there for all the kids."

To find out more about the Make-A-Wish Foundation or to nominate a child, visit the Web site at www.sfla.wish.org. Although the 2006 Wishmaker's Ball is sold out, the organization is already planning for next year's event, and always welcome volunteers and donations.